For one hour, once a week, our teaching artists and writers will share age-appropriate books with their students and lead them in creative writing and arts activities related to those books. This arts-integrated approach taps students’ multiple intelligences and provides a fun and imaginative “way in” to reading and writing. Depending on the artist’s specific field, students will:

Write and illustrate stories, poetry and personal narratives

Learn to “workshop” their writing as professional writers do

Craft handmade books

Perform Reader’s Theatre presentations of folktales from various cultures

Play drama games

Build masks and costume pieces

Create maps of real and imagined spaces

Interpret stories and poems through movement and dance

Paint, collage, take and alter photos, and engage in other visual art activities

Residencies may also be structured to center on an international collaboration, through which students will meet, write, and create with their peers in another country.

As they participate in Read, Write, Create, students will learn to:

Write clear, well-structured narratives

Increase their vocabulary, precision of word choice, and command of sentence mechanics

Offer constructive criticism of each other’s work

Increase their ability to understand, predict, and summarize age-appropriate texts

Increase their confidence at reading aloud

Increase their understanding, skills, and confidence in various art forms, including visual art, dance, and/or theatre

Blue Planet Writers’ Room continually assesses the progress of students and teaching artists and writers by using both formative (ongoing, embedded) and summative (end-of-residency) assessment methods. These include:

Formative:

Thinking Routines—simple, effective “visible learning” protocols developed by the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero

Reflective journals in which students record, in art and writing, what they are learning/enjoying/disliking about their workshop experiences

Monthly Reflection Sheets from teaching artists/writers, commenting on the progress of teaching and learning in the workshops

Observation of workshops by Blue Planet staff and subsequent feedback to teaching artists/writers

Summative:

End-of-residency surveys for students and site personnel

End-of-residency teaching artist/writer symposium for analyzing the semester’s work, sharing best practices, and planning refinements and improvements to the program

Grade Level:

K-8th

Number of Participants:

Min. 8 – Max. 25

Duration:

Fall or Spring: 12 workshops at 1 hour per workshop over 12 weeks

Summer: 8 workshops at 1 hour per workshop over 8 weeks

Audience/Environment:

Read, Write, Create often serves ESOL students in its workshops, encouraging them to write in both English and their native language.